We recently moved to inner city Columbia. We are happy here. If you go downtown and turn left on Main, everyone you see has darker skin tone than me. There are certain areas and streets we avoid, and wouldn’t walk down at night, but it’s okay. We hear ambulance sirens and trains, a hospital is a few blocks away, as well as a number of colleges, including two historical black ones and a women’s college. It is South Carolina after all, and still very segregated. Though many would like to take it down, the Confederate flag still flies directly in front of the Statehouse. Our Governor declines free Federal money to help build our schools into more than they are now, it doesn’t hurt her children or other upper class families because their kids attend private schools, and life goes on, segregated by choice for those who can afford it.

Just shopped around for car insurance.

We’ve been paying $111./mo. for GEICO for a long time. My husband had one small accident last Fall. Their service was outstanding, they set up the appt w/ a garage, gave him another vehicle, the whole bit. They just raised our rates to 140. Then they heard our new address. All of a sudden it jumped to 173., with a 1st payment of 198. I told them it was discrimination of the poor & we had moved here “to work with youth”. The lady said disgustedly, “Where YOU moved to….” I told her to come see our neighborhood, it is very nice, full of big, old trees and on a nice, quiet street of retired teachers.

Progressive quoted me $164. online. Went to finalize it, it jumped to 209./mo.

E-surance was 192./mo. I guess we stay with GEICO. There is NO REASON the rates jumped to this high other than we now live in a predominantly African American, poor neighborhood, which actually for where we live, we are in one of the largest and nicest houses, and our neighbors are very quiet and very nice. House rental payment went down, Car insurance payment went up for no reason except discrimination against the poor, because they can.

O SON OF MAN! The true lover yearneth for tribulation even as doth the rebel for forgiveness and the sinful for mercy.

no.50

O SON OF MAN! If adversity befall thee not in My path, how canst thou walk in the ways of them that are content with My pleasure? If trials afflict thee not in thy longing to meet Me, how wilt thou attain the light in thy love for My beauty?

no.51

O SON OF MAN! My calamity is My providence, outwardly it is fire and vengeance, but inwardly it is light and mercy. Hasten thereunto that thou mayest become an eternal light and an immortal spirit. This is My command unto thee, do thou observe it.

no.52

O SON OF MAN! Should prosperity befall thee, rejoice not, and should abasement come upon thee, grieve not, for both shall pass away and be no more.

I think I’ll write a children’s book on being “pompous”. The Pompous King of Polandia” or some such thing.

My husband and I have lived long enough and led lives filled with enough activity, to know many pompous souls. People who have a need to spout their glory, to think themselves better than, and to feel good about it. There is so much that goes on in the world, it’s amazing any of us survive even for a time. They put other people down and in so doing, somehow imagine themselves two floors above, when they in fact are going to lie beneath the earth in so much time, just as everyone else. And the truth is, we can take absolutely nothing with us from this world. We leave it all behind. All that goes with us is those good deeds we have managed, and the good love we have shared with our families and loved ones. And that is all. NOTHING else matters, nothing else lasts. In 2-3 generations, even the memory of us is gone. Only the effort we put into this world, in the form of others now living, survives.